New Streetline App Could Help Drivers Find Free Parking Spaces

Date:11/17/2011

Company:Streetline

Source:Gadgets & Technology News

We live in a world of constant technological innovation. These days, laptops are giving way to tablets, prepaid phones are being increasingly replaced by the newest Android product, and information once stored in filing cabinets or hard drives is now more and more likely to be secured in a virtual cloud.

Even so, despite all these changes, the way we drive on a day-to-day basis has changed little over the years. Sure, GPS technology in our cars has enabled us to easily plan a road trip or find a business without making a call or leaving our car. But for the driving that comprises most of our daily existence – the commute to work, the trip for errands, the return back home – technology plays little role. After all, if you check traffic reports on your way to work there’s a good chance you’re doing so via radio.

Someday in the near future, the driverless car tested by Google may actually hit the roads, thus forever altering the relationship between driving and technology. Until then, however, a collection of new smartphone applications, available for both Android and the iPhone, offer to make your daily drive slightly easier and more convenient. These apps provide local gas price information, track fuel usage and other car expenses, and offer support in the case of an accident.

New to this collection of apps, and perhaps the most promising one out there, is a parking application being tested by Streetline. The app would let drivers know where they can find open parking spaces in the area they seek to park. It would accomplish this by showing parking lots color-coded by space; a driver, then, could zoom in on the app’s map and see what individual spaces are free within a given parking lot. Although this sounds like an imperfect science, sensors imbedded in the pavement of parking lots would insure that the app is accurate and that its maps are updated in real time. Currently, the app is being tested on a trial basis in Boston, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles.